Govt maiden venture to produce power from garbage

The government is set to generate electricity from garbage for the first time as Kushtia Pourasova is willing to supply garbage to Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) free of cost.
Getting the nod SREDA and Kushtia Pourasova signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday to establish a west power plant company in cooperation with an Australian company involving TK 8.5 crore.
It has been estimated that the major city corporations are producing around 20 thousand metric tonnes of garbage and failed to manage    it in proper manner.
To clean the cities and produce electricity from the kitchen garbage, the government took up a massive plan ten years back but the city mayors have always wanted to sell garbage to SREDA or any power utilities.
"The Power Division sought Prime Minister's intervention here but the city corporations want a stake here. The cost of per unit electricity production from the garbage is TK 10 and if we give them (city corporations) a portion then who will give us the subsidy," a senior official asked.
He said the modern world was managing the garbage issues through establishing such plants across the world, the official added.
Such waste-to-energy plants are already running in various countries, including  Sweden, USA, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Singapore and Nicaragua, he added.
According to the current statistics, DSCC areas produce 3,500 tonnes of waste a day, of which 2,100 tonnes are dumped into the Matuail Dumping Station. The waste will be reduced to 200-300 tonnes of ashes once the project gets implemented properly.  
According to Waste Management Department of DSCC, the Matuail Dumping Station was set up on 100 acres of land. The dump station has reached a height of 70 feet from its original ground level.
Major accidents could happen at any time if the garbage collapses.
The two city corporations of Dhaka now produce over 9,000 tonnes of waste daily. The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has moved to make the waste dumping station at Matuail an environment-friendly one by setting up a waste-based power plant to generate electricity from the effluents.
But that is crawling due to the 'stake' issues. The proposed power plant will be set up under the 'Matuail Sanitary Landfill Expansion Project' involving Tk 724.49 crore.
Once completed, the proposed plant will produce 20-25 megawatts of electricity per day and the capacity will subsequently increase to 40-50 MW.
Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) seeks policy support from the government for signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with five city corporations aiming to produce electricity from garbage.
The state-owned BPDB has already sent a letter to the Secretary of Power Division seeking policy approval from authorities concerned.
The city corporations include Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barishal and Sylhet. Apart from them, it sent proposals to Dhaka north and south city corporations as well as Gazipur City Corporation for signing the MoU for producing electricity from solid wastes and effluents.   
Earlier, the BPDB signed MoU with Narayanganj, Chattogram and Mymensingh city corporations for producing electricity from the garbage.
The Power Development Board (PDB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) to utilize 500 tonnes of solid waste for generating electricity.
The BPDB hopes to produce 3MW-5MW waste-based IPP power project in Narayanganj.
A MoU was also signed between the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for setting up a power plant to generate electricity from the city garbage.
It will take some three years to put the 25-megawatt-capacity power plant into operation.
BPDB will implement the project and power will be generated from 2,500 tonnes of garbage everyday and CCC will carry the garbage.
But no one is ready to give up the ownership over its garbage. They want share of the fruits of the garbage production.
BPDB study report said about 300MW of electricity could be produced from the capital, which needs some subsidies.